Kelso Cochrane

“Tribute to Notting Hill race hate victim”

posted by Tippa Naphtali 9th April 2006Any news or updates listed at the foot of this item

Stanley Cochrane is 75 years old. He came to Britain for the first time last year, not as a tourist, but to discover who murdered his brother almost 50 years ago. On 17th May 1959, Kelso Cochrane, a 32-year-old carpenter from Antigua, was killed by a group of white youths in Notting Hill Gate. No one was ever convicted.

“In March 2003 I awoke from a disturbing dream about my brother,” says Stanley. “From that moment I couldn’t shake his face from my mind. “He kept coming back in my dreams. I decided I had to do something.”

Stanley wrote to the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, asking for his brother’s murder to be re-investigated. They replied there was no new forensic evidence to re-open the case.

Three years on, and not satisfied with the police response, he decided to see what he could find out for himself.

Above all, he wanted to know why his brother Kelso was killed. Was it robbery or racially motivated? Was it both?

In 2011 a new book by BBC documentary maker, Mark Olden,claimed the identity of the killer had been an ‘open secret’ since Kelso Cochrane’s death. The unsolved murder of Kelso Cochrane has finally been laid to rest after 50 years after the man accused of killing him was named as Patrick Digby.

Digby was arrested along with another men after police focused their inquiries on a group of white men at a house party in the street where the murder took place.

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Related Articles:

The death of Kelso Cochrane
(Operation Black Vote – 14 September 2011)
Kelso Cochrane is an iconic figure in British race relations. Over fifty years ago the young Antiguan was killed by a gang of white youths in Notting Hill, west London. No-one was ever convicted. He was the Stephen Lawrence of his day; a symbol of racial injustice.

Man who stabbed Antiguan carpenter through the heart in Notting Hill ‘race killing’ finally named after 50 years
(Mail Online – 8 September 2011)
The unsolved murder of Kelso Cochrane has finally been laid to rest after 50 years after the man accused of killing him was named as Patrick Digby. Mr Cochrane, a black immigrant from Antigua, was stabbed to death by a white youth in Notting Hill, west London in 1959. Digby was arrested along with another men after police focused their inquiries on a group of white men at a house party in the street where the murder took place.

Remembering Kelso Cochrane
(IRR News – 7 May 2009)
Kelso Cochrane, an immigrant from Antigua, was murdered in Notting Hill by a gang of White men as he walked home from a local hospital after receiving treatment for an injury he had sustained in his work as a carpenter. Kelso was stabbed and later died in hospital.

Kelso Cochrane Honoured With A Blue Plaque
(ItzCaribbean.com – date unknown)
50 years to the day, after the violent murder of North Kensington resident Kelso Cochrane, the Nubian Jak Community Trust is to install a Blue Plaque at the Grove Inn Restaurant & Bar, on the corner of Golborne Road and Southam Street, W10.

Kelso Cochrane murder: 50th anniversary
(Golborne Life – date unknown)
The fiftieth anniversary of the tragic murder of Kelso Cochrane on Southam Street, just off Golborne Road, is to be marked by the unveiling of a commemorative Blue Plaque on Sunday May 17th.

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